Author
Topic: Hive split (Read 1048 times)

Hi everyone I am wondering if it is too late to do a hive split, and if I could still get honey if I split now. I have an 8 frame hive with deeps and I want to put some of the frames from this hive into a 10 frame hive with deeps will this work? any other information on splits will be greatly appreciated, Thanks

Logged

A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay; A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon; A swarm of bees in July isn't worth a fly.

Deep will do O.K. You will have about 1/3 more bees per frame than mediums. It is not too late but don't know getting any honey. It will depend on what kind of flow you have later on. You may get some from the mother hive. :) d2

On July 1st, it is better to split and requeen with a purchased queen, than to expect the split to make an emergency queen.

With an emergency queen you have 26+ days post-split before it is realistic to have the first newly laid brood. You need another 22 days (now 48 day in total at minimum) before you have the first new hatching worker. Your hive will be at the end of August before it leaves survival mode and begins building, that is too late for any meaningful increase. Its population will have dropped throughout July and August as workers expire. It will be weak and dispirited - hardly a booming new colony preparing for winter.

Spliting will weaken the donor hive (you didn't say how big it is). The newly constituted colony will be sub-standard for winter survival. I assume your bees will enter winter mode in October. You likely only have 45 days (2 additional cohorts of brood) after the split gets on its feet at the end of August. It is going to be tiny and weak.

Beeks with access to multiple hives feed weak splits frames of capped brood weekly during the emergency queen cycle, sounds like you only have one hive, and so don't really have the resources to parasitize from elsewhere to artificially bolster the emergency split.

colbees...Is this your first year? How many boxes do you have now, brood, and how much honey have they stored for over wintering? You can certainly transfer them to 10 framers...just curious what you have for resources before talking about splitting.

I think summer splits made in June and July is the direction northern beekeeping is taking. If you're planning to overwinter them as nucs, this might be a good time to let splits requeen themselves. The break in the brood cycle will beat down the Varroa, there are plenty of drones flying, and the nucs will go into winter with young queens and bees. You have August and September to feed them until they're full.

the hive I will be splitting from has two full brood chambers and it also has a super on it my bees died over the winter and I got a new set in mid april, they just had to fill the comb with honey. I also have a 10 frame that was also started this spring but I cant split because population and honey production isn't very good yet.

Logged

A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay; A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon; A swarm of bees in July isn't worth a fly.

No compelling reason for a split expressed in your post. Your big hive has a max of 10-11 frames of brood, and minimal stores. Your small hive is described as weak. First management task: exchange locations to equalize the two hive population. This will take any crowding pressure off the larger hive and allow the smaller hive to build to winter strength and stores.

In effect you already have a "split" in the small hive, your task now is to use management to build that one up.

I cannot tell you how to winter manage your hives. I am in temperate coastal California. Even in my mild climate, going into winter with marginal colonies will result in unnecessary losses. Build up your weak hive to what is considered winter-thrifty for your area, and that means equalize your two existing colonies.

Making splits has an element of art and craft knowledge, knowing how far you can push the bees and when. Beekeeping is a long-term process, and it appears you are trying to "put the cart before the horse".

Learn how to keep bee over-winter, and when you have successfully mastered that skill (and it appears you haven't yet), then it is appropriate to learn the arcane skills of making increase. Start with the easy divides: new hives with purchased queens at the peak of spring increase next May (last week of April in my mild location). Master that skill, and then move on the difficult and fraught process of doing emergency splits in the summer.

I am located very close to you and my girlfriends house and hive is literally in Amsterdam. She lives down near LaCucina on the south side of Amsterdam.

To answer your question about splitting this time of year... yes you can do it. I split the hive at my girls house last July and it made it through the winter just fine. I made sure they were mite free and had plenty of food going into the winter and they came through very strong.

Should you need any assistance jlmk. I am in Amsterdam 4-5 time a week.